1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical fiber amplifier, and in particular, to a device for automatically controlling the output of a pump laser diode used as an exciting light source in an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA).
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical fiber amplifier generally amplifies a weak optical signal at a predetermined distance from a transmitter so that an optical signal converted from an electrical signal can be stably transmitted on a transmission medium, that is, an optical fiber to an intended destination. U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,012 to Raymond Zanoni et al. entitled Apparatus And Method For The High-Power Pumping Of Fiber Optic Amplifiers and U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,129 to Victor Mizrahi entitled WDM Optical Communication Systems With Wavelength Stabilized Optical Selectors are examples of known optical amplifiers.
The optical amplifier plays a significant role in optical communication through power amplification and preamplification, positioned between a transmitter/receiver and an optical line. Thus, efforts have been expended toward stabilizing the output of an optical transmission signal by use of the optical fiber amplifier.
As one of such efforts, there will be disclosed a method of stabilizing the output of a pump laser diode used to amplify an optical transmission signal in the optical fiber amplifier in an embodiment of the present invention.